Skatebeard's Anchor
by Kindre Turnany
Summary: An arbitrary plot device sends Stiles to Derek for help. Conversation and actions follow.


this was a stupid plan. stiles was all ~_~ about it and hoped sir grumperwolf wouldn't eat him or anything. i mean he knew derek wouldn't eat him because the time for that would have been much sooner after they met if derek was the eating people kind of wolf, which he obvs wasn't.

stiles was all, "sup bro," into the creepy-ass silence that was derek's house. or probably his house. stiles wasn't sure if derek actually lived here or just, like, hung out there during the day or whenever he thought peopel would visit. maybe he lived nearby and just ran over to the hosue really fast when he heard peopel coming so they wouldn't know where he really lived. except that didn't make sense since his werewolf friends could just track his scent.

so, yeah, derek def lived in this shithole. no wonder he was always in such a bad mood.

then stiles lost his shit and waved his arms around trying to catch his balance again because he jumped in startlement—def not fear—when he saw derek lurking it up a notch or eight in the shadows by the stairwell. that was completely uncalled for btw because stiles wasn't even here to be mean to him or anything. mostly.

"go home stiles" derek said in his deep voice that he used when he wanted to be intimidating even though he knew he sort of wasn't since he never carried through on any threat he ever made to hurt anyone except his evil uncle and sort of jackson, but that didn't really count since it ended with jackson being brought back to life but as a werewolf.

"i..." it was actually hard to say because stiles didn't like admitting it. "I need ur halp."

"thats not even english what the hell are you speaking"

"at least i sort of use punctuation, okay. so shut it." stiles shook a finger at derek like he was scolding a child.

"you dont need my help" derek turned his eyes to the floor in a deep, existential brood. he was probably convinced no one would ever need or want him again, which was pretty understandable since the last thing anyone in the pack had said to him was, "we don't need or want you here anymore, derek." it had followed scott's command to leave town, which derek sort of but didn't erally follow since his family's house was in the woods outside of town.

"i sort of reallly do tho, like no kidding. shit sucks, and i can't fix it myself."

dereks mouth twisted into a bitter thing, not like he'd just had a drink of day-old coffee so much as like he'd just been asked for help from someone who not too long ago told him he was worthless (accurate btw). "what do you expect me to do then"

this time stiles was the one to look away because he was having a fglashbacka nd that's what peopel do during flashbacks. he saw things happening, but they were just in his memory, not really happening now in the house with derek. in stiles' memory, scott's eyes were glowing red like dereks and like peter's used to before derek killed him and lydia brought him back to life on her birthday. scott was growling and hunched forward the way he used to back when he still tried to kill (maybe eat?) stiles on the full moon.

his memory also remembered for him that the rest of the pack had distracted scott and gotten stiles away, but that didn't make it suck less that his best friedn tried to kill him AGAIN after he thought they were over that part of their relationship.

"he doesn't know how to handle his alpha powers," stiles told deek when he was done flashing back. "they're stronger than his beta powers were."

"wow i am completely surprised by this unexpected turn of events" derek rolled his eyes.

"was that an 'i told you so' becaus eit sounded like 'i told you so,'," stiles said (he wasn't sure where the comma went on that one, so he stuck in an extra one and hoped for the best).

"yes i told you so"

"good, so will you help?"

derek moved forward way too smoothly almost like he was on a skatebeard and just slid out of the shadows. he wasn't on a skateboard though, so stiles figured it was sweet werewolf grace of movement. He'd have been jelly if he wasn't so busy wondering how long it took derek to find the perfect shadows for sliding in and out of.

"i thought i was usel"

"no," stiles cut him off. "we don't have time for you to feel sorry for yourself. also get a damn dash okay that cut-off literally doesn't even work."

"shut up stiles i do what i want and kate argent burned the punctuation out of me when she murdered my entire family"

"again with the feeling of the sorry for the self."

"dude everything about my life sucks"

"I rly can't argue that point, so lets' just make _my_ life suck a little less by helping scott and i'll tell him not to be an ass and let you be friends with a bunch of teenagers again or w/e u want okay/."

"fine"

time passed here. not a lot of time, but enough for them to plan and get scott to a place where he and dere could talk without trying to kill each other, which mostly involved stiles standing really close to derek like a human shield because scott only ever tried to kill him on the full moon and it was at a waning crescent now.

"What is HE doing here?" scott was all angry and growly with his eyes doing the red-glow thing, but he also seemed to be in control. stiels was glad. he didn't feel like being eaten, and he wasn't sure derek would be able to protect him since scott had a pack making him strong and derek had only his shadow skateboarding and intense unhappiness.

"he's here to help," stiles said. behind him, derek was tense and silent, and stiles thought they might be standing a little TOO close if he knew derek was tense.

"He can't help me. i don't need him!"

"really because according to stiles you tried to kill him again on the full moon and i thought that was something you wanted to avoid"

stiles couldn't decide if sassypants!derek was a good idea right now or not. scott's moods had gone from moony teenage werewolf unpredictable to psychopath with a loaded shotgun but also a trunkful of balloon animals unpredictable.

"i CAN FIGURE MY OWN WEREWOLF PROBS OUT JUST LIKE BEFORE!"

"yes i definitely did not help even a little before"

"aLLISON HELPED. ALL YOU DID WAS BE MEAN!"

"scott, plz stop shouting."Stles shook his finger at scott like he had at derek before because he'd found it was a useful way to chastise stubborn werewolves.

"K bro," scott said.

"n listen to derek. i brought him here to halp. C:"

"was that an emoticon stiles" derek crossed his arms, but he didn't look very threatening.

"just help scott."

derek shrugged, but he got this let's get down to business (sans huns) look in his eyes. stiles felt exposition hanging in the air. "you need to reaffirm your anchor"

Stiles fornwed and sniffed just in case he'd misread the signs. no, no, this was def the expositionary moment. derek was just a failure at talking.

"Wow, thanks a ton, derek. that is everythign I could ever need." Scott rolled his eyes.

"it has to be stronger than it would have needed before because theres more for it to temper"

"But what I had before was literally the only thing that would work. how do you expect me to find something different after that."

"i dont your anchor is fine since you need it to be based in either love or hate the problem is just that you and allison are so confusing your emotions arent anchoring properly"

"derek you did not just say my best friend tried to kill me because his gf dumped him." stiles turned away from scott to glare at derek because this was stupid.

"yes i did exactly that"

"have i ever mentioned that i sort of hate you sometimes?"

"youre not the one who needs a love or hate anchor"

"So if I get back together with allison, I'll be a good alpha and not eat my friends?"

"no thats stupid scott you just have to sort out your feelings not force someone into a relationship with you"

"Oh." scott looked sad. he'd probably hoped that would help him get allison to give him another another chance.

"my work here is done" dereke turned and left the meeting place which was a place and not just an absent void of nothingness and plot convenience.

"wait that's it? srsly?" stiles followed derek out while scott pondered the mysteries of life and love or whatever.

"he will figure it out now that he knows the key isnt making allison date him"

"i feel like this is the dumbest thing i;ve ever been a part of. nothing even happened."

derek shrugged. it was not a particularly expressive shrug. more like a need to respond but have nothign to express shrug.

"so love or hate, huh?"

"yes thats what i said"

"and i bet u'll tell me ur into hate."

"im not into anything"

"uh-huh."

"but less love than the other"

"which is def y you just helped scott out w/o actually asking for anythign in return. at least in the past you convincved him you needed help killing your uncle and then killing the kanima." for a moment, stiles paused, but that meant derek got away from him a little because he was still walking. stiles jogged a little to catch up. "you kind of try to kill a lot of people, don't you? but without a ton of success tbh. and usu you're doin it to try n save peeps, so that's nice i think."

"you better watch out before you give yourself a hernia"

"that doesn't make any sense."

"i dont care"

"ya, you CLAIM not to care about a lot of things." stiles smirked. or at least he hoped he smirked; he couldn't actually see his own face to see how the expression came off. it felt right anyway. he waggled his eyebrows for added effect.

"oh god the caps mean you think youre onto something dont they" stiles was kind of hurt derek didn't mention the eyebrow thing, but then he remembered derek was facing away from him trying to walk into the night, and all that expressionary effort had been completely wasted.

"only if by 'think' you mean 'KNOW.' cuz dude you are so in the power of love camp, don't even deny it."

"i deny everything"

"even though you keep trying to kill people, you're doing it to save other people. you just don't know any other way how."

"i deny you"

"and even though you act all grumpy and mean, you tried really hard to take care of your pack when they were yours."

"i deny your cow"

"i don't have a cow."

"probably for the best" derek tried to shadow-skateboard away then, but stiles caught him by the arm just in time for a dramatic locking of gazes.

"when we were paralyzed, you told scott to take me and go. you wanted to save my life first."

"i can take care of myself and you cant"

"yeah, and you care about that distinction." stiles smiled then and was only a little disappointed (not surprised) when derek didn't smile back. "i appreciate that, y'know. and..." he looked down at the floor but kept his hand on derek's arm. it felt kind of overdone, but who was he to disagree with his own narration? "i could be into your power of love camp too."

when he glanced back up at derek to see why he was taking so long to respond, stiles found him all shifty-eyed. finally derek cleared his throat, opened his mouth, and shut it again.

"i think if you quit pretending to be made up of only hate, then a whole bunch of people would join your love camp."

"wait is this like a friendship thing or orgies i honestly cannot tell anymore"

"i think i meant the friendship one?" stiles admitted 'love camp' was sort of a suggestive turn of phrase.

"good" there was something else there though. something good but also not good. like he got the answer he'd wanted but not the one he'd hoped for.

"just because there aren't orgies doesn't mean only friendship is allowed though." stiles wet his lips because his mouth felt suddenly dry and that made perfect sense. wetting the outside of his mouth with the inside which didn't have wetness. then he closed his mouth and worked his saliva glands to actually get some wetness back into his mouth even though derek looked at him kind of funny. but the disappointed not disappointed look was gone.

he totes wanted a slice of stilinski.

stiles leaned forward, and derek practically lunged at him. maybe it would have been a normal sort of motion for a pair of werewolves, but stiles was notably human. still it was kind of awesome when derek crushed their lips together in an admittedly awkward and desperate kiss. once he calmed down a bit and stopped trying to conquer stiles' face in the name of the derek nation, derek turned out to be an aweosme kisser. then he pulled back, smirked, and skateboarded stiles into the shadows with him.


End file.
